Money Matters - Part 13

Shaws Supermarket 700 & that pharmacuticle company in MA that infected people because of the Steriod shots 600. That has been in the news in less then 1 week !

LOTS of layoff notices just since the election.

Bill, I was SCREAMING that during the debates. No fiscal cliff discussion and no healthcare law discussion. Almost no stimulus discussion. What a joke.

I love how this fiscal cliff crap is framed as this crisis that has 'fallen from the sky' and now requires real leadership and compromise. These are the same morons who came up with and agreed to this in the first place! It was and is a horrible idea. Amazing.

I dont like the cliff, I hate even thinking of the cliff. I guess the cliff is pretty transparent - NOW

I prefer Norm...

Guess I just want the Pub

We can deal with cliffs. We can deal with blackouts. We can deal with recessions. We can deal with gas shortages. But if there is a shortage of alcohol - REVOLUTION!!!

Major Civil Un-rest

This message was edited Nov 12, 2012 1:09 PM

Very little discussion, Bill.

Your new senator's presser was an embarrassment and really weird. Maybe a medicine man cursed her??

This message was edited Nov 9, 2012 8:37 PM

3% stock drop since Tuesday.

CBO estimates eliminating tax cut for those above $250K will net about 70 billion per year ASSUMING no negative effect on economy. Deficit is 1.2 trillion. Perspective??

Stop spending 1.5 million to create a robot that can fold laundry & 559,681 for shrimp running on a treadmill.

My perspective used to be that America was the best choice despite its problems.... how long can I keep that up at this rate?
Stop Spending! Like we've all had to!

Oh, Sally, I agree, I agree, I agree!!!!

So, do we move or stay near at least one set of grandies? That is what we are wondering. But, of course that would mean we could even sell the house.

Jan, we can totally see that decision is down the road...and a very hard one. and my kids aren't even married yet!

LOL.

Many families with kids and grandkids aren't going to be able to sustain themselves in a large populated area for much longer.

Some of my friends are looking to relocate to a property large enough for 2-3 generations of their families with a large garden area, berries and fruit trees, maybe room for a milk cow or two, and some fowl for eggs and meat. A property capable of having several houses if needed, not all in one house, LOL.

Having said that, I would have taken my mother in after her stroke if I'd had another bedroom. She would have had better food and more personal care than the $5,000/month assisted living provided.Plus, research is showing that healing is improved by a supportive environment.

My perspective is that we don't have a good alternative to supporting the US. What country is doing a better job? I am still shocked every day at how badly we as a nation are using the new media, and how easily we are manipulated by it. Neither presidential candidate said anything with any content about how to address the US debt. This is the same situation FDR had. His government was facing a transition from the agrarian society to an industrial one, when investors goofed it up. Now that we are post industrial, we are amidst another major economic revolution.

I didn't see the Warren interview. This is her first elected office so she is learning the ropes of politics. I wonder if I could have handled the press any better in her shoes.

So far, no signs that i should change my investment strategy in any significant way yet except to put some funds in a safe investment to help our kids pay for college and to make retirement plans, which is already done. Even as campaign rhetoric avoided the fiscal cliff, the financial markets have known about it all along. We are getting pressure from the panic sellers, who are themselves losing a lot of money though. A financial aid is Dollar Cost Averaging. i'd like to know how many people used that strategy to buy securities when the prices were high so if prices went down, they would get a better value in the next buy-in month. We have such amazing technology, but there is so little information in the public's hands about where the real hazards and strengths are within our economy.

Darius has an interesting perspective, one which is people-centered, and I wish you success. There are relatives in both my side and in my DH's side who have tried to do that. It is hard to handle unexpected property taxes and expenses of upkeep. One young niece-in law wants to take over the family farm but make it organic. She is only now waking up to the economic management she would have to learn about, so she is leaving her much dreamed about college because it would cause her to start out in debt from college costs.

We are fully expecting our kids to have to live with us after college. THis era of going out on your own right away, and of buying second homes and retirement homes, is fast going away. The best home plan in my mind is those that have separate but somewhat equal 'master bedroom' setups.
I might not be the greatest gardener but I have yet to meaningfully offset my food costs the way I garden on this half acre suburban lot. I think I lose a lot of efficiency of scale. Yet making the move to a rural area might mean giving up on employment.

You can have a big garden but there is no possible way, 1 person can take care of it. NO WAY, NO HOW.

I have always thought of a community garden. Break it up into 8' x 16' or 8 x 8 and everyone takes care of their own space and everyone shares. Then again with the way some young people think today - I dont even want to go there.

The community garden movement is growing in my region. it is very hard to preserve the old farmlands from entirely going into housing developments, so I applaud when a group is successful. Someday we may really need more local produce.

Sally, I was thinking along the lines of "when employment gives up on you" rather than giving up employment to move more rural.

Sherrie, when my mother was growing up, her dad had a paid position (until the Great Depression) which paid major things requiring cash, like property taxes, utilities, etc. He also did the major farm work like plowing, but each kid had responsibility for at least one food in the garden.

No way could I manage enough garden to feed several people. I do make a dent in my food budget by what I grow and preserve, and it gets a little better each year as I'm healing the soil. I still have to attribute lower yields because I'm constantly experimenting to see what works best to grow nutritionally dense foods, something not necessarily available in local organic foods.

If I just had one able (and interested) person younger than my 72 years, I could produce more in my garden.

Rosemary i am thinking that it is a deval thing - she acted the same way early on at a media event assuming he would answer all questions instead of taking the lead on obvious questions directed to her. she certainly did not look or act like this during any of the debates. time will tell although i would want someone who is a senator to act like one from the get go.

I thought this was an interesting article. http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3677

I don't know anyone who has seriously discussed entitlement reform claim that the chunk of it is something other than ss, medicare and medicaid. And when you hear about reform, it is usually ss and medicare. Just because most of the people receiving these benefits are not lazy bums, it does NOT make it any less of a crisis. If the money is not there, it is not there. Unfortunately, these programs HAVE encouraged dependency over the decades. SS, for example, was never meant to be what it has become. Go back and read what FDR said about it at the time of its inception. It was an EMERGENCY fund, not a retirement fund. And guess what - even he encouraged private accounts in ss. Gasp!

As for the class warfare argument that the 'rich' need to pay more to help on the deficit - a 100% tax rate on the upper income group would not even fully reduce the CURRENT annual deficit! Therefore, it would not even reduce the overall, accumulated national debt. It is so obvious that it is the spending that is the problem, but no one has ever had the guts to do anything about it - just like in Europe. Future is bleak.

Need new catchphrase
"It's the spending, stupid"

I like that, Sally. Just figured that the House and the Senate are part of the 47%.

I guess I'm out of touch... what's the 47%?

The Quote "There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it -- that that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. ... These are people who pay no income tax. ... [M]y job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

Yuck.

COLA for social security checks next year is 1.7%. MY cost of living has gone up far more than that!

I'd love to see a new political party, something that could be nicknamed "The Sensible party."

People don't want sense. They just want the other guy to foot the bill.

Yeah, but we people in DG might vote for policies to make sense! And gardeners aren't the only ones who are "grounded." Sadly, I am hearing about families that just keep totally indulging their kids without teaching responsibility. There will never be an end to "entitlement."

Nothing new there. That is why we are where we are. See so many 'poor' kids with smartphones, hip hop fashion brands and $150 sneakers. But they get school lunch for free. Sickening.

Criminal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323894704578113033115035920

Ugh!

Is self-quoting allowed???